Virgil Abloh, the artist and fashion designer, died on 28 November of cardiac angiosarcoma, a rare cancer. He was 41. The news was unexpected, as Abloh had chosen to keep his diagnosis private.
An exhibition of his work at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in 2019 was called Figures of Speech. The show emphasised language, especially the lingo of advertising. As the catalogue text put it, Abloh’s work turns ‘the objects he designs and the people who wear his clothing into “figures of speech”’. Abloh’s signature artistic gesture across all his work – fashion, furniture, gallery art, bookmaking, concept cars – was the use of quotations to call attention to the material, linguistic and historical contexts of his products. He dipped things in drip, and basted them in irony. His influences included Jean-Michel Basquiat, A Bathing Ape, Marcel Duchamp, and Christo and Jeanne Claude.
One of his best jokes was to put the words ‘FOR WALKING’ in bold, all-caps lettering on a pair of women’s cowboy boots. He marked up Nike’s Air Force One trainers with Helvetica…
